In a typical space flight mission, a thermal protection system (TPS) material developed for use by N.A.S.A. has had no commercial or non-space flight applications, other than exploration or near term supply for the space voyagers. The TPS manufacturing processes could not leverage or rely upon common or well developed commercial processes. Because the number of N.A.S.A. missions has been small, typically less than one per year, N.A.S.A. has incurred very high costs to fabricate, and to maintain the capability to restart the fabrication of, a TPS material and the associated space vehicle structure. In some instances, an ability to fabricate a TPS material and the associated architecture is lost because the relevant technical personnel are no longer available.
A woven TPS material and associated fabrication procedure has several features, including: (1) an ability to improve the materials, procedures and/or architectures by incorporating incremental improvements that occur and are disclosed from time to time; (2) an ability to optimize the TPS architecture for a particular mission, and to introduce changes in response to unexpected changes in the mission late in the mission development cycle; (3) an ability to maintain an overall manufacturing capability for the general TPS processes, materials and associated tools, with relatively modest re-start or re-focus cost; and (4) maintenance and re-education of a technical staff and associated how-to knowledge that is periodically updated by periodic use of the staff and accumulated knowledge to design and fabricate an improved TPS. Ideally, the accumulated knowledge and know how should accommodate use of ranges of important parameters and fabrication techniques.
What is needed is a thermal protection system (i) that is reasonably efficient over a range of heating rates and cumulative heat loads, (ii) that undergoes partial or complete ablation when the associated vehicle is exposed to severe heating rates and/or severe cumulative heat loads during entry into an atmosphere, (iii) that permits reconfiguration of TPS material composition and/or TPS architecture when some important aspect of a space flight mission design changes, and (iv) for which a capability for reproducing or remanufacturing the TPS can be maintained and improved at modest expense and effort.